I read something the other day that declared Huawei the "new Samsung." It's a nice enough sentiment, but I don't know that I've seen any products from the latter nearly as luxurious as the Huawei Watch.
The wearable is still in fairly rarified air as an Android Wear device that doesn't look like a tiny phone with a wrist strap. Honestly, having seen smartwatches trucked out by the ton at IFA this week, I was taken a bit aback when I finally came face-to-face with Huawei's offering.
The company's gone to great lengths to almost disguise the fact that this is, indeed, a smartwatch, from the luxury bands to the high-end material to the watch faces, which are more Rolex (albeit the digital version) than Galaxy Gear.
Naturally, there's a price to match. The Huawei Watch starts at an Apple Watch-like $349. It goes up from there, of course. If you want, say, the rose gold strap, that sucker is going to set you back $800.
That's a lot of cheddar for a first-generation product in a nascent space - particularly one without a household name like Apple or Samsung attached. Ergo, Huawei's strategy of appealing to those who want smartwatch functionality in a device that will mostly go by undetected.
And indeed, it's a really nice piece of hardware. It's responsive and lovely to look at, as evidenced by all the models in white gloves showing it off today at IFA. It also feels nice on the wrist - it's not nearly as bulky as much of what the competition has offered up thus far.
